This invention relates generally to an elevated rail transportation system, and more particularly to a switching arrangement provided for such a system.
In my prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,000,702 an elevated rail transportation system is disclosed as including a track in the form of a continuous box beam having, in one embodiment, rails on the top and opposing side surfaces thereof for the support of elongated rail vehicles extending outwardly of opposite sides and having wheel means engaging the rails. The box beam is supported along spaced columns, and the rail vehicles are adapted for travel in the same or opposite directions along the track. Problems are, however, envisioned when switching or diverting the rail vehicle from a main line to a station, a spur, or a branch line without interfering with such lines during switching because of the vehicle's lateral extension from the rails. The railroad car switching art is highly developed for the switching of cars, having vertical wheels, from a pair of rails lying in a horizontal plane to another pair of rails lying in the same horizontal plane. The rails are supported on a full road bed from below. The generally known switching approach used in the railroad switching art is likewise adaptable for monorail switching wherein the rail cars are suspended from the monorails. Such a system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,016,818. Other approaches have likewise been utilized for the switching of rail vehicles suspended from monorails, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,926,126. These known rail switching techniques are, however, not available for switching a rail vehicle from a primary track, as shown in FIG. 1 of my prior patent mentioned above, to a secondary track because of the lateral extensions of the rail vehicles.